The God of All Small Boys

About this book

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

Dundee, 1917. When his father leaves to fight in the war, eleven year old James is sent away from home to live with relatives in a mill town he barely knows. There he is drawn into the orbit of his cousin Billy, and into a world shaped by poverty, hard routines and unspoken rules.

The days are not easy. James must learn how to survive bullying, how to read danger, and how to earn a place among children who have grown up faster than he has. Yet within the uncertainty of wartime and the weight of adult absence, small freedoms still matter. Friendship is forged in shared defiance, loyalty tested in moments that seem slight but linger.

This is historical literary fiction attentive to childhood and memory, to the way a single summer can hold fear and wonder in equal measure. It is about learning where you belong, and about the quiet resilience that takes root when the world feels suddenly larger and more fragile than before.